When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he laid off thousands of employees, stopped paying rent and auctioned off coffee makers and office chairs in hopes of a big turnaround.

Two women who lost their jobs at Twitter when billionaire Elon Musk took over are suing the company in federal court, claiming that last month’s abrupt mass layoffs disproportionately affected female employees.

New Jersey is seeking more than $640 million from Uber in taxes and penalties, saying the ride-hailing company misclassified its drivers as independent contractors. The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development declined to discuss the case or say whether it is seeking similar restitution from Lyft or other gig economy companies. The threat of classifying workers as employees is the single biggest worry among investors in companies such as Uber and Lyft, said Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities. It adds the black clouds over Uber, Lyft and the overall gig economy, as their business models were built on contractors, Ives said. That law is set to go into effect Jan. 1, but Uber and Lyft have been pushing for a carve-out.